Wireless Movement-Tracking System Uses Low-Power Radio Frequency Signals

In some cases, radio frequency signals may be more useful for caregivers than cameras or other methods to collect health and behavioral data.

New on the Market: February 2020

Low-viscosity plastic; coin cell holders; oxidation-resistant coatings; and more.

Threads Detect Gases When Woven into Clothing

Equipment-free textile detectors could be used in public health, workplace safety, military, and rescue applications.

Smartphone System Tests for Lead in Water

This inexpensive system can detect lead levels below EPA standards.

Modern Software Links Legacy Systems

Software portal solutions can connect legacy control systems and field devices to the cloud.

Welding Ceramics with Lasers

This technology could be used to create smartphones that don't scratch or shatter, metal-free pacemakers, and electronics for space and other harsh environments.

Insect-Inspired Motion Sensing

This mechanical gyroscope can advance motion sensing capabilities in consumer-sized applications.

Shape-Shifting Robot Uses New Locomotion Strategy

The robot is built entirely from smaller robots and can form a robophysical system that can move by itself.

Dynamic Gripper Mimics Adjustable Grip of the Human Hand

Such grippers would be suited for human-robot partnership in assembly lines in the automotive, electronic packaging, and other industries.

New Products: February 2020 Motion Design

Encoder

The AI25 hazardous series AI25 encoder from Dynapar (Gurnee, IL) is suited for Class 1 Division 2 applications where a Zone 1 or Division 1 encoder may have previously been...

Smart Manufacturing Control

Today's advanced smart CNC controls allow manufacturers to optimize the manufacturing process right on the factory floor

Flexure for Self-Assembly

Conventional fastening mechanisms like nails, bolts, and welds are subject to manufacturing and inspection tolerances, differential thermal growth, and other sources of error that lead to over-constraint, among...

Soft, Skin-Like Structures for Robotic Locomotion and Transportation

These soft robots can be rolled up and carried in a pocket.

Modified Fittings Enhance Industrial Safety

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is home to one of the largest buildings in the world — the massive Vehicle Assembly Building — and also hosts a number of one-of-a-kind facilities. The...

Robots Assemble Large Structures from Little Pieces

Systems of tiny robots could build high-performance structures, from airplanes to space settlements.

Going Beyond the Basics: Innovative Step Motor Designs Give Machine Designers More Options for Motion Control

Machine and system designers now have greater options in choosing a motor to meet motion control requirements.

Robot Circulating Liquid Stores Energy and Provides Power

This robot “blood” stores energy, transmits force, operates appendages, and provides structure, all in an integrated design.

Intelligent Microrobots

Such machines, only a few tens of micrometers across, could be used in the human body to perform small operations.

Valves for Pneumatic Cylinders and Actuators

Know your valve options.

Product of the Month: February 2020 Tech Briefs

Varjo™ Technologies announced a 2D/3D immersive "Workspace."

A Soft Robot That Can Maintain Its Temperature? No Sweat!

Cornell researcher T.J. Wallin explains what's so cool about a robot that sweats.

VIPER Rover to Map Lunar Water Ice

An engineering model of the VIPER lunar rover is being tested at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. About the size of a golf cart, VIPER is a mobile robot that will roam around the Moon’s South Pole...

Tractionless Motion is Possible

Cells are observed to “crawl” by attaching themselves to a surface and using these anchor points to push themselves forward (like crawling on the ground). Scientists have identified a different...

The Next Building Material for Mars: Fungi?

When astronauts arrive on the Moon, their habitat may be one made out of fungi.

New Products: January 2020 Photonics & Imaging Insider

SWIR Camera

Princeton Infrared Technologies, Inc. (PIRT) (Monmouth Junction, NJ) will be introducing its new compact MVCam series shortwave-infrared (SWIR) and visible camera...

Simulated Image Demonstrates Power of Nasa's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope

Imagine a fleet of 100 Hubble Space Telescopes, deployed in a strategic space-invader-shaped array a million miles from Earth, scanning the universe at...